Threads
by David.lindqvist
Summary: Sonic is long dead, killed after preventing Robotnik from activating the Doomsday machine. Now Mobius is recovering from Robotnik's former influence. Things are bad, drug use is rife and the star detective is an echidna-hating racist. Until he happens across a certain young lady and soon realizes that things are a lot worse than he thought. Lemon in latest chapter, chapter 4.
1. Chapter 1

Threads

"Sonic would have done it a lot faster, tidier too"a bespectacled elderly hedgehog-human hybrid commented after peering down from his Robotropolis Times to check on the progress of his subordinate's work.

"Yeah, but Sonic never had to worry about much at all," a young echidna-human hybrid grunted back over his shoulder as he was knelt down and using both of his arms obvious considerable strength to tighten the final locking bolt on the new Anti-Air Assault Gun prototype. Fellow mechanics often shortened it to the Ass Gun, much to Chuck's disapproval who was coincidentally the elderly hedgehog checking up on Knuckles.

"What kind of a name is Knuckles anyway?" Chuck put his paper down and did a quick visual inspection of the prototype weapon.

It seemed to pass his inspection, albeit how brief it was. Knuckles trusted his judgment though, it had never failed him in his long and distinguished career as a respected doctor of research focusing on the development of artificial intelligence technology and military applications. The Anti-Air gun was one of his many projects. An artificial intelligence controlled the targeting parameters of this weapon. It could shoot a fighter jet out of the sky with ease already. However, with the prototype AI installed in the computer, it would be less costly in misses. The AI would calculate a targets trajectory and correct for deviations in the targets arc of motion like debris getting in the way and the likeliest direction the pilot would be trained to think of as the safest maneuvering option to dodge the obstacle.

In short. It was pinpoint accurate and essentially Death incarnate in combat. No Mobian could ever think that fast or have that level of agility that AI's had. Their processing power was huge, so huge that they experienced time a lot more slowly than flesh and blood creatures. This was what made dealing with a rogue AI considered to be the single most worst case scenario on a battlefield.

"I told you, it is considered an honorable name with my people. You have to earn this name where we come from."

"So how does someone earn the name Knuckles then in your community?" Chuck leaned forward, genuinely eager to know. This caused Knuckles to ponder his answer a moment before replying.

"You get it through making the ultimate sacrifice, but surviving. You see, in battle, the greatest warriors and leaders were always at the front. The idea is that the noblest of Echidna's will lead the charge into battle. The noble are made up of the most wealthy residents to the humblest of them. You earn the right to a name like Knuckles by taking a killing blow meant for a comrade or citizen." he closed his eyes as he recanted the tradition his family had followed all their lives.

"But wait. You are called Knuckles, but you're not dead. How does that work?" Chuck was fully engaged in Knuckles history now.

"Check it out" Knuckles pulled down his lead-lined suit so a horrifically sized scar was visible on his chest. "Yeah, that one hurt alright. Thing is, I did die." the protective suit now off, despite being in a contaminated work-space, revealed a rugged young echidna sporting velvety red fur that shone in the overhanging fluorescent lighting. It was beautiful except for a dinner-plate sized hole in his chest that had seemingly healed over to a degree.

"What the...how did you even survive with this kind of injury?" Chuck's face was now a mix of curiosity and shock at seeing such wounds on a person before.

"I told you. I didn't."

"But you are here now. And alive." Chuck felt the sudden urge to point that out to him. Somehow the work-station sector felt darker in spite of the fluorescent lighting that always had the building lit up a harsh white tone.

Knuckles carried on speaking, seemingly not hearing what Chuck had said. "In our society, those people who do that and survive are sometimes reborn again in a young body with their previous lives memories still intact. However, we also believe in spirits, both good and evil. If you survived what should have been a fatal blow and this is what my ancestors called the Ghost Dance Hour." knuckles emerald eyes flashed a few tones darker. Chuck found himself doing a double take as he had noticed the subtle shift, and he did not like it.

"The longer you are in a coma, the weaker your minds defenses become. It is believed by some people, like my ancestors for example, that it is possible for the spirit of a demon to enter the warriors mind and claim his soul. We used to pull the plug on coma-patients after two weeks of no improvements, otherwise, the patient could become cursed."

"What do you mean by cursed?"

"As in cursed to a life of anger, pain, suffering and hatred. They live forever, if they remember to feast on enough living tissue three or four times a year that is. The catch is, that it can't be just any living tissue, has to be both alive and a lot of it. Say forty kilos and you are in the right ballpark. Do that a few times throughout the year and you'll never grow older. Well, now, you see, they stopped pulling the plug fifty years ago, it was declared a violation of Mobian rights and needlessly cruel, oh and that it was based on ancient superstition."

Chuck felt his throat sinking into his chest as there was no doubting now that the new workers eyes had gotten so dark that they were now black. He did not believe in monsters, but now he found himself doubting that very same sentiment that he had relied on to get him through life with his sanity.

"What are you?" it took a lot of effort to keep his voice steady.

"I'm a Verden Jageren. After two weeks in a coma, that is when someone from our tribe would become susceptible to demonic possession. That would be what happened in my case."

"Okay, now you are just trying to scare me and I'm sorry to say you are doing a good job of it" Chuck forced a laugh from himself and turned back to pick up his paper. Surely he was pulling his leg. But again, how did he do that thing with his eyes.

Wait. Why was it so dark all of a sudden? The lights had been on a moment ago and had all clicked off in one go.

A brilliant orange glow lit up a few feet of the room in front of Chuck. That was when Knuckles reappeared. His face now morphed to resemble a particularly artistic version of the Devil. Or at least, the Devil in Chuck's eyes.

Millipedes crawled from empty black eye sockets, once young flesh gave way to advanced decay and a pallor to match. The mouth hung open as if the sounds of a thousand diseased babies begging to be fed from the dry tit of their dead mother were trying to break through in a rushing crescendo.

The last thing before waking up the next morning, vaguely remembering a nightmare he thought he had last night was that he was certain he was already dead, he just hadn't accepted it yet.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two – Threads

"Now take a deep breath and just calm down sir" the traffic cop was saying to the very pissed off echidna ahead of Chuck in the traffic jam.

Nope. No luck for the officer. The now really fucking pissed off echidna stepped out of his car and started walking purposely to the cop who was now demanding that he stay back.

"Knuckles?" Chuck remembered him from the dream now, but how? He had never seen this guy before in his life, only in that messed up dream.

The solidly built echidna turned around to Chuck. "Yeah, that's me. How do you know me? Who are you?" he turned away from the hapless cop who was focused on trying to undo his pepper spray holster.

"Oh, I um..." what could he say? 'Oh I had a dream about you last night...' because that would just go over so well. "Are you by any chance the new applicant starting with us today?" he remembered oddly now that they had a new guy in today and that dream...far too coincidental for this to not 'mean something'.

"Oh, yeah, that's me. Are you Chuckie?" Knuckles relaxed suddenly and looked genuinely embarrassed. It was hard to stay mad at such a genuine sounding guy so Chuck ignored the use of his much hated birth name, Chuckie.

Chuckie, it was like his parents wanted him to be bullied at school. Who names their kid Chuckie? Were his parents drunk when he was born? There were rumors about his mothers well kept secret, alcohol addiction. It could be possible.

"Chuck, please, just Chuck. I thought I had told them not to put my full name on the ad" he struggled for the sense of deja vu, but he could simply not find it now. Knuckles seemed normal.

"Sorry about that, he cut me off and then started shouting at me" he shrugged in the officers direction somewhere over his shoulder.

"Oh I, um, I see. Why is he yelling at you to calm down though?"

Knuckles turned around to look at the hopeless officer who was frantically speaking into his radio.

"Fucking pigs"

"Sorry?" Chuck wasn't sure he heard Knuckles right.

"I can't stand pigs. Especially little pieces of shit who are just realizing they pulled over the wrong motherfucker" Knuckles reached to the holster that had been obscured by his jacket before.

" _This isn't happening."_

" _It's fucking happening old man"_

Knuckles quickly drew a very high-end looking pistol and opened up into the officer. Bullets barked from the barrel coinciding with large meaty chunks spraying through the body armor and of course, the back of officer Ronny the Rat.

Ronny fell backwards, dead before he hit the ground, his body made a wet smack as it hit the floor.

"Now shit's about to get real Chuckie" with that, before Chuck could even open his mouth to say 'stop,' Knuckles put the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Brain matter exploded out over the car seat of his vehicle.

Chuck could smell raw beef, his stomach rumbled and then he quickly felt sick when it registered why his stomach was rumbling. Our hunger is always triggered in response to the flesh of our own.

Chuck vomited chunks from his cereal that morning in the road before falling in it, seemingly having lost consciousness, likely from shock.

"Wait wait, hold the fuck up" Sonia interrupted her hopeless junkie brother, Manic, from continuing his story.

"What, sis?"

"Again, what the fuck are you taking to keep having dreams like that. And especially after Chuck disappeared last week. This is just getting too weird is all." Sonia flicked back her punky-purple hair. It had fallen over her face again, but she hated having it down.

"I know, it's just like, where could he have gone? I mean, the war with Robotnik was over ten years ago. Acorn herself said there was now no worry about agents still being present, so it couldn't be that." Manic lay back on the couch, disturbing a joint he had rolled earlier, it fell on the floor where it would be ignored for a few hours more.

"Besides, Knuckles...he disappeared last week too. No-one saw a thing, police have no leads and Acorn refuses to comment, just saying it's a missing persons case. Nothing more they can do" Sonia regarded herself in the dresser mirror. She still looked good, her face was a little more rugged these days than what it used to be, her body was still highly toned and glowing with youth. She put it down as simply having the natural good looks of a traveling hippy.

She kept her gaze on the mirror as she pulled her dark purple dress adorned with black gems in the pattern of an inverted star starting with it's two highest most points on her breasts that went down to end the final point between her legs. The skirt itself went down to her knees, she wore black leggings riding high to discourage perverts. Her boots were black leather, highly polished that went midway up her calf, fastened by a zip on the inside of the ankle.

"Yeah, what gives? I thought if anyone could take care of themselves, it would be Knuckles. I mean, who's stupid enough to try and jump _him_ of all people?" for all of Manic's faults, he still had common sense. You didn't fuck with Knuckles, Mobian Freestyle Fighting champion.

"I just hope nothing happened to him, he was a good friend when I needed. Anyway, I'm heading out to talk to people again, see if they know something, you need anything?" Sonia tossed her dark metallic blue handbag over her shoulder. With one final check in the mirror to ensure she still looked just as good two minutes ago, she stepped out of her studio apartment in downtown Mobotropolis.

The skies were still a miserable gray, the smoke from the bombs nearly eleven years back were an ever present reminder that they had just barely escaped total nuclear annihilation. The ultraviolet burst followed by ever growing intense gamma pulses would have destroyed the planet. That had not been the doctors intent, he simply had not known just how powerful his Doomsday device was. That it would have eradicated all life when fired. Nuclear weapons were in their infancy then. Now, years after the first bombs were dropped on Nogadishu, effectively leveling the city and rendering both the crater where it once stood and the surrounding forests of Tirrahea uninhabitable.

Now, under the permanent winter clouds that hung over the rest of Mobius, the once most tourist friendly city in the Mobotropolis continent that thrived from the tourist trade was now a replete shambles of what it once was.

Once a young city, always full of tourists and students had now become something of a sad, pale imitation of the past. Once fine, modern office blocks and markets there was now weathered brick behemoths and boarded up store fronts.

Detective Prower was sitting in his unmarked hover-cruiser. The engine was on but muffled. The city had seen sense to introduce sound dampening technology into law enforcement vehicles. Normally the engine sounded like a jet getting ready to take off, from the casual observer though, it was a parked civilian hovercraft, nothing more. Exactly what Prower wanted the two perps he was watching to think.

The two echidnas were talking in hushed tones and more than once they glanced over Prowers vehicle and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Another handy stealth feature the guys over in advanced tech had installed in undercover vehicles.

It was activated by a switch next to the steering wheel, simply wait until no-one is paying attention to you and it activates. The windows actually were made of a reinforced glass-plastic compound, there were two layers only a few hundred nanometers apart. Between them, they sandwiched a fine layer of crystal. The crystal displayed an image of inside of the car in three dimensions. No matter what way you looked at it or angle, the inside image would adjust in accordance to movement. It displayed an empty vehicle.

One of the echidna's was big. Bodybuilder big. He dwarfed the other echidna who was no small guy him...no wait, herself. Damn these ant munching fucks all looked the same to him. Prower looked through a pair of particularly small binoculars for a better view. A computer enhanced image was displayed. Dark areas were lightened to see more detail. The internal computer effectively used various technologies to enhance the image and translate it back through the eye-pieces.

The smaller echidna had dark pink fur and a no-nonsense type of face. Normally Prower would have found her fairly nice looking, if it hadn't been that filthy ant-nose she had. Fuck, they were an ugly species.

The guys back at the office all called him Prowler. He liked the name. The boys had joked that he was a serial prowler with all the drug busts he had made.

Bingo! The kinda ugly-not ugly female opened her jacket and pulled out a fair size bag of the hard stuff. Shit, he could even make out the crystals from here. Only Prowler could spotted that detail with how quickly the transaction was complete. Alright, fine. They were using attractive females of their species to carry illegal drugs on the street. After all, boys being boys, cops are not likely to stop a well dressed, attractive female. It all made sense now. Although he did not like this fact, he was forced to accept it: Officers discriminate, especially the good ones. You just didn't target the decently dressed people, they become the gray man. That guy or broad you look at briefly and can't recall their face. In other words, cops biggest weakness. It has always been there and always will be. Just a fact of life.

Prowler was not interested in the big guy now, he was just there for show. The young one was the real target. So he picked the gray man this time, went against all unspoken protocol and followed the young woman. No. More like eighteen year old. Very young.

The observation pulled a little at his heart. How could one so young and honestly, not that bad looking get caught up in something as big as this? She could easily be a college student, he could picture her at a desk, nose buried in a book.

Fuck. This one was gonna bite him later. Sure, he'll get a well deserved pat on the back from the boys upstairs but at the same time, this will still not make him feel like a decent mobian at the end of the day.

He grit his teeth and pulled out slowly as she turned the street corner. He waited for a few seconds then gently gunned the motor so the cruiser was whisper quiet as it stalked its prey.

She turned around as he drew up within ten meters of her approximately. When she turned, Prowler had already made the decision: he'd blown his cover, he was made, new priority – apprehend and detain.

He pulled open the door and dropped four or five feet from his cruiser, he didn't have time to wait for it to park. He landed nimbly on his feet and was already running by the time the teenage girl had started turning round to run, a shocked look on her face. The stealth cruiser has claimed another kill. She had barely gotten a few feet before he was on her like an attacking tiger.

Prowler pushed her up against the chain link fence and held her there with one hand as the other skillfully frisked her up and down for weapons. He found the small folding knife in the back of her black jeans, in the back pocket.

"Keep your hands where I can see them! No sudden movements!" he barked out orders immediately to take psychological control of the situation. It was how they trained police officers when it came to taking control: control is a man or woman in uniform telling people what to do. A lot of people just instantly submitted. Except the crazies, they'd sooner turn around and try to fuck you up with whatever they just happened to be carrying that day. House keys, studded rings on the fingers, a needle they had just shot up with five minutes before you unfortunately happened upon them. You name it, he'd had all of it used as a weapon against him.

"Hey what the fuck man? Let me go!" the voice was young, she sounded more like she was sixteen years old. Damn, he'd have to call the parents, the situation had just gotten more complicated.

"Calm down" he kept his voice soft, reassuring, he hated anties more than anyone but when it came to kids...he just couldn't get angry or stay angry with them. "I'm a detective with Mobotropolis Police Department. Just relax and you will be okay." she slowly relaxed, her struggling ceased and was now considered a compliant suspect.

"Now, I saw you making a suspicious transaction with a gentleman back there that has caused me to believe that you may be selling and possibly transporting drugs" he tried his best to sound like a police officer, that bit about police work was not his strong point.

"Wait. Please. You have to help me!" she started turning her head frantically around.

"Alright, I can help you" Prowler dodged the back of his head as it almost made contact with his nose. Another lesson hard learned.

"But first, you need to calm down, do that and I will let go of you" he tried to be gentle with her now "okay, that's better. Now. Before I search you for drugs, you wanna tell me what's going on? Why do you need my help?" Prowler was curious now. When something triggers your curiosity in detective work, you were expected to follow it and learn what it is.

"Look, the big guy. He'll...he'll be back. Soon. He saw you!" she turned to face Prowler and her face was frantic. Eyes wide and searching for possible threats, he lips trembling and tears forming at her eyes.

"The man I just saw you with?" he asked her, finding himself checking over his shoulder now.

"Yes! Him! He said if I was a cop, he'll back for the both of us!"

It was the genuine fear he instinctively recognized on her face that made him reach for his radio to call for backup.

He found an empty pouch on his tactical vest. Of course, he'd never put it back on after lunch earlier. And he hadn't called in this possible case. No-one knew where he was and it sounded like like he had a giant freak of an echidna after him. He wasn't sure if his nine-millimeters had enough stopping power to drop him before he bum-rushed him and beat his face into a pulp.


	3. Chapter 3

Threads – Chapter 3

"Alright. This guy, who is he?" Prowler checked his sidearm holster. The anti-personnel assault rifle was in the cruiser, above the headrests.

"We have to get out of here! We need to go!" her voice was panicky but persistently reminded him of the real fear she was displaying.

"Okay, now look" he recognized that the situation was degrading rapidly. "Do you have any identification on you? Like a school ID or youth pass?"

"What?!" the edge in her voice caught him off guard "How rude! I am twenty one next month!" she shot him with a haughty stare that felt out of place with her soft angelic features.

"Okay, my apologies miss, you just looked young to me is all" she can't really be twenty years old, can she? He thought to himself.

"Look, let's just get out of here and..." movement behind Prowler caught her attention "he's here!" the young echidna pointed over Prowlers shoulder.

Sure enough, when Prowler turned around he was already expecting to see the big guy, and here he was.

"Lara-su! Get your ass back in the house! I'll deal with you later!"

"Oh shit" Prowler managed to say as the guy took his trench coat off.

He was huge. Prowler drew his gun and pointed it at him. "Okay! Now that's as close as I'm happy with you being, stay where you are and identify yourself!" Prowler shouted as angrily as he could manage to sound.

"Pig, imma kick your teeth down your throat. Come get some!" the large echidna walked towards Prowler. Prowler could just feel the violence this guy was capable of inflicting just by the sight of his piercing stare.

"I am not fucking around! One more step and I shoot man!"

Although Prowler had been slowly edging backwards to the edge of the road away from him, the distance between them had halved now. So Prowler opened up on him. He kept pulling the trigger until slide lock and it took three clicks before he realized that he was out.

Every shot had connected with the big echidna in the chest, one had managed to hit him in the face and pulverize his nose and left cheek. He fell slowly to his knees before falling over sideways.

"What the fuck?"

"Oh my god...you did it...you actually did it!"

"Huh...? What?" Prowler was feeling the shakes one gets shortly after a shooting.

"It's a long story..." she looked at the corpse that now leaked intestines from gaping exit wounds in the back.

Lara backed away from both the echidna and the cop. "They will be looking for us now, we should get out of here, fast" she added.

"Look, now wait a minute, you need to tell me what's going on, why did he just rush me like a maniac with a death wish?"

"He was a customer of mine. I supplied him chakras and he stayed mellowed out. Good money, until his freaky cult friends got involved. They are mostly people with an unusual reaction to chakras, that reaction being that the drug heightened their reflexes and reduced mental processing times. The natural boost in creativity it gave helped add up to people who were essentially supernatural in their potential and combat abilities. Very dangerous to take them on one on one. They will nearly always win in a fair fight. Drake right there" she gestured to the fallen echidna "was one of them, they will come looking for us now. We need to get out of here!"

Prowler considered his response carefully before answering with "Regardless, you have been caught dealing drugs, you have to come with me back to the cruiser, _now."_ his tone left little room for argument so Lara followed him back to the cruiser.

"Detective Prower to dispatch, do you copy?" he spoke into the radio he had left in the drivers seat of his stealth cruiser.

"Dispatch to all units, repeat, dispatch to all units." the dispatch officer spoke calmly into the receiver "Reports of a possible child abduction on 25th Bateman Street. Suspect is described as a young echidna, velvet colored fur, above average height. Suspect is considered armed and extremely dangerous. All units advised to call for backup if they locate him. Do not engage alone, repeat, suspect is extremely dangerous."

Prowler furrowed his eyebrows in concentration. Bateman street, that is just a few minutes on foot from where he was standing now.

"Looks like your lucky day, Ms Lara. You are free to go, I have to take this" he turned around, fully expecting her to be taking off already, but she wasn't. She walked towards him.

He looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Did she say Bateman street?"

"Yeah, that's right, why?"

"My baby brother is playing out there with his friends, can I come along?" her face was filled with concern again.

"You gotta be kidding me...alright. Fine. Stick close to me and don't go rushing ahead. Do that and you can come with me, deal?" Prowler folded his arms across his chest to show that he wasn't up for negotiations on this.

"Alright officer, we have a deal." she fixed him with quite an alluring gaze, it made her features soften.

Maybe she's not so bad for an echidna. Caught up in the wrong line of work maybe, but didn't come across as bad. He had a nose for the bad ones.

"Okay, stay behind me and move quick" Prowler started jogging around the block to Bateman street. Lara to her credit kept up with no signs of having trouble keeping up with him. A fast runner, he'd have to watch her.

As they rounded the corner, Prowler was assailed by a sight of pure insanity. A beefy echidna had hold of a lead pipe and was repeatedly smashing it into the limp male fox body on the floor. A young female hedgehog screamed as a rather skinny echidna chased after her. But the way he ran was all wrong. It was like someone had hit fast-forward on a VHS tape, he ran in a strange manner too. He sort of loped after her, not exactly running.

An explosion from a nearby house brought Prowler back to reality. The windows belched flames and the door had blown off the hinges.

A figure was walking in a daze from the house, another brawny echidna. The flames had consumed much of the outer dermal layers of his flesh, he had third degree burns on most of his body but yet here he was, walking out of a burning house without a care in the world.

He turned to face Prowler and raised his left hand slowly. Prowler was about to react when he saw the projectile based primitive revolver in his hand. It may be old tech, but it would punch through his armor at this range. The revolver exploded, taking off a couple of his fingers. He finally sagged to the ground after looking confused at his hand.

Prowler couldn't afford to waste time contemplating what he had just seen, the other big guy had stopped beating the extremely dead fox and was advancing on him with unwritten hate blazing from his eyes.

Prowler fired off a few shots with his sidearm. The echidna reacted with un-natural quickness and agility. He actually managed to dodge one of the shots outright and the other two caught him across the side. He charged Prowler with no regard for the futility of the efforts. Prowler dropped him with half a magazine.

A scream stopped Prowler dead, the young hedgehog he had seen. It was her, just around the back of the neighboring house. He charged ahead, the house was now burning uncontrollably and had started to spread next door.

Lara followed closely behind wordlessly as the violence had unfolded before her. She saw Prowler had stopped and was pointing his gun at the echidna, who was struggling to stab the young lady with a folding knife. He was shirtless and his eyes bulged wildly in his head. A single shot echoed out. The back of the crazed mans head came away and he dropped without a further movement.

Prowler raced up to the hedgehog, she had dark purple fur and was dressed in a kinda punky-way. "Miss, it's too dangerous to be out here," he extended her his hand "I'm a detective, help is on the way, are you hurt?" he helped her to her feet, noting her hand was bleeding heavily from a bite, likely from the crazed meth-addict echidna that was now splayed on the floor beside her.

"What the fuck is happening?!" she looked about herself rapidly, chest rising and falling in time with her rapid fire beating heart.

"Can you tell me your name?" he set what he hoped was a reassuring hand on her shoulder and looked around at the same time.

He could hear sirens rapidly approaching, the cavalry had arrived, people were opening their doors and looking outside to get a glimpse of the carnage that had occurred on their front doorstep.

The first three cruisers arrived within seconds of each other. They pulled over, leaving the noisy engines running as two uniformed officers jumped out of each one armed with micro-particle-accelerator assault rifles. Prowler relaxed as the officers spotted them and headed towards him to secure the scene. But there was still the matter of the child abduction, the caller had come from this street.

"Listen, we gotta find the kid still, do we have a description of what the child looks like?" the big husky male looked around the scene a little unsure of what to say. "Look, just look after these two and instruct the other officers to comb the area immediately." Prowler started out into the street and turned to add "Call in SWAT too, these echidnas were jacked up on some new kind of drugs, gunshots barely phase them. They are freakishly fast too, be careful" he ran towards the address that had called in the report. A cruiser had already pulled up outside and two no-nonsense looking cheetahs were hammering on the door as another unit went around back.

"Wait!" it was Lara. She was running up towards Prowler waving both arms above her head urgently. Prowler stopped and turned to her. "There are more coming, a lot more! We need to run, now!"

"Look, it's okay, backup is here and we have SWAT on the way"

"No! There are a _lot_ more of them coming"

 _'I have the best of our police force either here or on its way here now and somehow what this teenager is warning me of, doesn't make me feel entirely safe. But first things first, a child has been taken.'_


	4. Chapter 4

Threads 4

Prowler turned back towards the house, determined to seize control of the situation. The two officers looked at each other after no answer on the second knock and nodded. The second cheetah cop stepped back onto the porch with his weapon drawn and aimed at the door.

The first cheetah leaned back and slammed the heel of his boot into the flimsy made wooden door. It burst inwards with little resistance.

"Breaching house!" officer one disappeared into the house quickly followed by his partner. They went left and right, simultaneously scanning each and every room downstairs. Prowler ran into the house "Detective Prowler! I'm heading upstairs!" he shouted, moving for the stairs in the hallway.

The house was poorly furnished and smelled dusty. This was a very low income area. He took the steps one at a time, His eyes followed his sidearm as he scanned the left hand corner, keeping his back to the wall so it would be more difficult for someone to run around the right corner and take him off guard. He was a few feet from the top of the stairs now and could not see anything on the left yet so he stepped around to the right.

It was this simple tactic taught to them in the academy that saved him here. A huge echidna was standing stock still...holding a machete that closely resembled a sword for the obscene length of the thing.

They both locked eyes for a moment, the echidna lunged for Prowler, and at the same time, Prowler calmly fired a three round burst into his chest.

The effect was instantaneous this time, the rounds had directly impacted his heart, the resulting over-pressure from the entry of the bullet caused the arteries to seize up and he was in a coma before he knew what hit him.

"Hostile contact!" Prowler called out.

"Downstairs is clear! I'm on my way up to you now!" Prowler recognized the voice as that of the first officer who had breached the house.

Prowler turned around, his gun followed, always with his eyes. The doors were all closed and no-one else was up here. He let himself relax a little, this proved to be his big mistake. The door behind him burst open, in a blur of motion, a teenage hedgehog male was on top of him. He had swung a hammer at his head and connected solidly. The resounding _thunk_ reverberated through his skull and his vision went hazy. It registered in the back of his mind that blood was already pouring down his face, he was in trouble. He struggled to raise his gun but was not nearly as quick enough to stop the teenager from slamming the hammer down into his ribs hard. He heard rather than felt his ribs break from the blow.

Prowler laid back, he had accepted that he was going to die here, the kid was moving so fast and he was unnaturally strong. Stronger than him, a full grown fox. He watched him raise the hammer up to deliver the final killing blow when the reports of an automatic weapon tore into the teens face, dropping him in a heartbeat.

"Officer down! I repeat, officer down!" the cheetah yelled urgently into his headset across the Mobotropolis City com. He had just broadcast to all units on active duty. This area was about to be swarmed with cops. "Oh shit!" he leaned over Prowler, instantly noting the the large laceration on the left side of his forehead. He could see bone, and it was cracked. "He's hurt bad! Where's our backup?!"

As if to answer him, the sounds of footsteps filled the house almost instantaneously as the SWAT team had been on the way back from another incident in the region when they were called again.

Up to twelve men and women in pure black combat suits, black helmets with polarized visors, armed with fully automatic particle accelerator rifles fanned out and started searching the house.

"We got three bodies in here!"

"I found the kid...he didn't make it"

Lara paced around nervously outside, the heavy police presence did little to assuage her of her fears of what was to come.

Two uniformed officers were standing outside the front door, another two had gone round back to stop anyone fleeing. A plain clothed officer, she thought she heard him referred to as a _detective_ , was standing outside his unmarked cruiser talking into a radio, clarifying events with the control room.

"We need an urgent medivac, we have a detective down with serious injuries here. His condition is critical, not stable. Blunt force head trauma, compound skull fracture" the detective, a young wolf, spoke with urgency into the radio.

"Negative on that. Standby for new instructions."

The wolf stayed silent.

"OK, we need you to get into position to repel rioters. A large gathering of Mobians have started assaulting officers with lethal force and looting stores. They are heading in your direction. All riot officers have been contacted and are on the way over to you. Repeat, rioters are armed and heading right for you."

The operator fell silent and the detective looked bewildered at his radio before flying into action. Every officer had received the broadcast. The street was secure, there was at least thirty police officers in the area and the SWAT team that had just cleared the house. He felt safe here.

"You hear that?" the cheetah looked up from Prowler, who was now mercifully unconscious from his injuries. "We need to move him, they aren't sending a medivac in with that crowd bearing down on us. Come on, help me get him downstairs" he picked Prowler up with little difficulty and his partner held his legs. It was not ideal, but given the circumstances, it was justified.

They both awkwardly carried Prowlers limp form down the stairs. The head injury alone did not look good, the blood coming out of his mouth and raspy breathing made the situation even worse. He was bleeding internally, in his lungs. The young man must have broken his ribs.

Lara's jaw dropped as they carried Prowler out. Angry shouting sounded in the not-so-far distance. His injuries were appalling, he was dying, she had no choice. She had to save his life, he had saved hers after all.

"Hey! I'm a student doctor!" She shouted to the officers laying him on the floor. All notions

of loading him into a cruiser was abandoned as large crowds of extremely pissed off citizens descended upon them from every direction. They had no way of getting through, there was just so many people. Where had they all come from? Why were they here?

The two officers dutifully laid detective Prowler on his back and Lara knelt next to him. Technically she had told the truth, she was a student doctor, she was taking a gap year to rethink her decisions.

Lara's medical experience instantly told her the worst had happened. His skull was fractured and he had likely suffered brain damage. There was nothing conventional medicine could do for him. But she had a medicine that was not exactly conventional...or legal for that matter. She deftly reached into her waistband and produced a freshly rolled joint of chakras. It was little known, but chakras has almost unlimited potential in preventing or even repairing brain damage. This chakras had been specifically grown to maximize the levels of active drugs in the plant. The result was what she held in her hands, a life saving medication, in the right circumstances.

"I know this will look bad, but this is the only thing that is going to save your detectives life" Lara pointed to a clear fluid leaking out of Prowlers ears "that clear fluid means the brain lining has been broken, he will be dead in minutes so you just have to trust I know what I am doing" she lit the joint and held it to his lips.

The two first responding officers gave each other a look and ran to join the two freshly assembled groups of officers. The SWAT commander was giving out instructions and organizing everyone.

Lara cried out and ducked as the concrete splintered into hundreds of tiny little pieces, ricocheting everywhere from a bullet impact. High velocity, some punk had himself a particle accelerator rifle and was shooting at them from the crowd.

"Come on, smoke it, it will keep you alive" she looked frantically back at the detective.

There was more gunfire now. The SWAT members were the first to retaliate and open fire. Normally, firing on civilians rioting was seldom done, but these people were not rioting, they were there for them.

Several echidnas fell in the crowd, that was when they all rushed forward as one. An unstoppable wave of pure, primal hatred.

"Free fire! Shoot to kill!" the commander struggled to make his voice overheard as the sounds of forty-plus automatic weapons suddenly opened up on the crowd.

Several of the echidnas in the crowd jumped up to an impressive height and glided towards the police formation frighteningly fast.

"Don't let them go! They hurt our own!" a voice shouted distinctly over the crowd.

The first two beat cops fell in tandem as the gliders managed to reach them and overwhelm them with sheer numbers and brutality.

They were beaten to the floor with broken off tree branches, gardening tools and glass bottles with the odd baseball bat here and there. Weapons picked up in a hurry and that certainly didn't detract from how proficient these people were with them. Before anyone could move to back the attackers away from their fallen comrades, they had already been beaten down, their helmets ripped off and heads stamped on as others beat them with any hard object they had to hand.

"This is control, you have two helicopters entering the zone now, they will coordinate the riot squads."

"Negative!" the SWAT commander screamed into his mic as his rifle clicked dry and he drew his sidearm to pick off an attacking young wolf who was too close for comfort "they are not rioters! They are targeting us with deadly force, multiple casualties! Send in everything!"

Lara saw several more officers fall, hit by flying bricks. Flames licked at the flame retardant combat suits the SWAT members wore. Flames from molotovs thrown at them. Smoke filled the street. The remaining police were now in close quarters with the baying crowd, some had drawn their service knives. Eight-inch serrated steel combat knifes designed to inflict brutal wounds on people.

SWAT team member, Alyssa Burkham, an attractive wolf, was knocked back by a charging echidna who had just taken two damaging shots to the right shoulder. His arm hung limply at his side, the other one was trying to force a six inch nail into her eye socket. She gripped his wrist with both hands. The echidna was wild-eyed, almost frothing at the mouth as he bared down on her.

Alyssa kicked him in the crotch as hard as she could, her martial arts training kicking in. No reaction, just a grunt from him. This time, she sat up and sank her teeth into his throat. This time he roared with what could easily have been pain or rage. She pulled back and twisted, her strong jaw muscles made short work of the echidnas throat. The flesh pulled away and the severed carotid artery covered her fine white fur coat under her uniform with a thick, red viscous substance.

He kept trying to stab her for a few more seconds before the blood loss registered and he fell forward, lifeless. Alyssa kicked him off of herself and staggered backwards, the situation had gotten worse. There were only fifteen regular cops left and two SWAT team members had fallen. The force at which the bricks were being thrown was enough to crack through the titanium combat-plated anti-ballistic helmets and deal enough damage to kill.

That a large proportion of SWAT team members were wolves was a well known fact throughout Mobotropolis. They had the fastest reflexes and were true alpha predators when it came to hand to hand combat. An echidna was normally no match for them.

It was for this reason that when their weapons clicked dry, the wolves in the SWAT team, five of them, gave no second thought to resorting to unarmed fighting. This was what wolves did better than anyone else.

The spectacle was incredible. With the exception of three, the SWAT team seemed to devolve into an animal-like display of savagery and pack instincts.

Alyssa felt her head snap backwards and her visor cracked. Someone had gotten lucky and hit her with a piece of lumber. Something clicked inside her and she pulled back her head, howled in anger and jumped on the fox that had hit her. She tore into him with her claws and teeth, literally ripping him to shreds. He fought her all the way, until the point of his death. That was not normal.

She felt a pair of powerful arms grab her from behind. Her pack-mate, Rojas, stopped wrestling with a hedgehog and pounced on the echidna that had grabbed her. Alyssa circled around behind the echidna and kicked his legs out as Rojas kept his attention. Together, like poetry in motion, they fell upon him and ripped his throat out. For a moment his arms still struggled before he lost consciousness.

She looked up to Lara for a moment who sat there transfixed by the sudden transformation of a professional SWAT team into a horror movie. A horror movie pitting werewolves against rabid Mobians with super strength. On paper it sounded great, but now, in person, it didn't feel so thrilling.

Lara had heard of this unique talent. Wolves would essentially go feral in life or death situations, they formed the majority of front line personnel. Unequaled in physical combat, they were the best allies you could want in a fight. But this was too much, even for a pack of five of them. Their fighting was impressive, but the injuries were racking up. A slashed arm, stab wounds and various blunt force traumas. They would fight until killed, until then, they were savage fighters.

Sonia had hopped over the back fence and ran like hell. That cop had saved her life but she still wasn't sticking around to find out what was happening. Her and cops didn't bode well.

She ran until she reached the road, it had taken her five minutes to sprint through the city park that had been behind the street. There was an odd absence of traffic. She jogged across the road towards the east side of Mobotropolis. She had friends there, they would help her sort this mess out.

She checked her phone and breathed a sigh of relief, she had signal. She dialed in her best friend Mindy's number and held it to her ear and tried to hide the receiver from the wind that was picking up.

"Sonia!" Mindy picked up almost immediately.

"Mindy! I need help, I got jumped by some psycho and the police all showed up and...I just need a place to crash for the night, if that's alright with you?"

"Sure, come on over to mine, but you gotta tell me everything when you get here." Mindy twirled a strand of platinum blonde hair around her fingers and ignored the shifting in the bed behind her.

"Deal, I'm near the city park, it should take me about forty minutes."

"See you soon hun" Mindy smiled and hung up then turned her attention back to her older lover, Frederic.

"Who was it baby?" Fred brushed his hand down the side of her arm and rested his weight on one elbow.

"Sonia, I think she's in some kind of trouble." Mindy looked worried for a moment.

Fred shifted his weight and pushed himself against her smooth, white rear. She stirred and smiled. "You know..." she gasped as his teeth found her neck "we still have thirty minutes to continue" she moaned as his fingers brushed her thighs and found her sweet spot.

Fred was a lion, a very dark furred lion crossed with a wolf. His muscular body dwarfed Mindy's supermodel thin frame. Her hair was held up and draped down about her shoulders and face, she had bleached it and just recently started dying the tips blue. She was still naked from when Fred had ambushed her earlier. But yet, even now he was ready for round two, if the large bulge pressing against her ass was anything to go by.

Fred pulled her close to him and she instinctively relaxed, allowing her legs to spread. Fred was definitely big, she had never felt so full before from her previous lovers. They had been together for three months but she still gasped audibly as his thick member probed her entrance before sliding into her. The walls of her vagina struggled to accommodate him. It hurt, but at the same time, the pain turned her on even more. He knew just how to hit the right spots.

He grunted, a deep, animal sound that shook Mindy to the core as he drilled her harder and faster with his impressive phallus.

"F-Fred..." she was able to stutter out between the thick waves of pleasure that washed over her, he was hitting _that_ spot again, and it was driving the breath out of her with each thrust in.

Each time he pulled out, the walls of her vagina clamped down tight around him, she stared into his eyes, her mouth hanging open now as he lifted her legs above his shoulders and leaned over. She felt herself drawing rapidly to her climax, his grunting only made the mood more desperate, and hot.

He stared back and started thrusting frantically, she could feel his penis throbbing inside her, he was filling her with his seed, claiming her in his wolfy way. The very idea drove her wild and she cried out as she convulsed around his long, thick member.

Reluctantly, they had to separate as he grew soft slowly inside her. As he pulled out, she could already feel his ejaculate running down the inside of her leg. Wordlessly they lay side by side for ten minutes before Mindy decided that she should probably shower now, before Sonia got here. The sheets too, she'd have to change the sheets. She stood up, not bothering to put on any clothes, Fred's eyes focused on her taut, firm rear end. She looked over her shoulder and smiled unabashedly at him. That hungry look he gave her made her shiver in anticipation.

The sex was always amazing, that protective pack instinct just swept her off her feet though. He was fiercely loyal, he loved her and would do whatever it took to protect her.

"I'll be out in a minute darling, just going to shower first"

"No sweat, I'll change the sheets" he stopped Mindy short of the shower and kissed her before she strolled back in, a genuine smile plastered over her face. It looked a little goofy, but it was real. This was how Mindy really smiled when content.

She did not bother closing the shower room door and just stepped in and switched it on. She gasped as the initial burst of cold water hit her warm body before warming and she relaxed. Life was truly amazing right now, Fred was the best and she would do anything to help Sonia.

 _'Can I tell you just one thing Fred?'_


End file.
